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Friday, 31 March 2017

FREE PATTERN: The Last Butterfly Scarf

For ages I've been looking for the right yarn and the right pattern to make a beautiful scarf for a beautiful lady - it had to be girly and classy, based around purple/black, able to be dressed up and dressed down... a seemingly impossible quandary! But then the Australian stockist of Wolltraum, Blayney Sew N More had a sale on Facebook, and ... The Last Unicorn was on offer. Just a 150g cake, but I just KNEW it was the right yarn for this project! It fades from baby pink through to black, with a gorgeous sparkly thread through it.

Next challenge: the right pattern. It needed to be a regular shape (so rectangular, not too modern and asymmetric, and definitely not frilly), a design that worked well with the slow-colour-change yarn, used about 150g of yarn to get the whole effect of the colour change... Yeah, there wasn't anything out there that really ticked all the boxes AND tickled my buttons. But then I found this beautiful triangular shawl of multi-row butterflies and fell in love!

(c) NJSharon (ravelry.com)

I searched high and low for a straight version of the pattern and found nothing. So, with much swearing, graphing and calculating, I figured it out! As I was making it, I thought - what if there are others like me who want to make a straight scarf using these butterflies!? So, to save you all the effort, the pattern (and chart!) is written out below and I've called it The Last Butterfly Scarf in homage to both the butterflies and yarn :) I am indebted to njSharon and Debi Adams for the beautiful butterfly sequence of stitches.

The final product came out exactly how I wanted it. Kindly modelled by my friend Alice, it could be worn as a normal scarf, or as a wrap to dress up an outfit!

InstructionsFoundation: 351fsc, ch1, turn. To make your scarf longer or shorter, add or subtract fsc in multiples of 14. Row 1: ssdc in first stitch. *dc in next 7 st, ch7, skip 7 st* repeat ** to end of row, dc in last 8st. ch1, turn.Row 2: Repeat Row 1.Row 3: ssdc in first stitch, dc in next 6 dc. *2dc in next dc, ch2, tc into 4th skipped sc of Foundation below enclosing chains, ch2, 2dc in next dc, dc in next 5dc* repeat ** to end of row, dc in last 2 dc. ch1, turn.Row 4: sc in first st, sc in next 8 st. *2sc in ch2 space, sc in tc, 2sc in ch2 space, sc in next 9st* repeat ** to end of row. ch1, turn.Row 5: ssdc in first st. dc in next 14 st. *ch7, skip 7 st, dc in next 7 st* repeat ** to end of row, dc in last 8 dc. ch1, turn.Row 6: Repeat Row 5Row 7: ssdc in first stitch, dc in next 13 dc. *2dc in next dc, ch2, tc into 4th skipped sc of Row 4 below enclosing chains, ch2, 2dc in next dc, dc in next 5dc* repeat ** to end of row, dc in last 9 dc. ch1, turn.Row 8: sc in first st, sc in next 15 st. *2sc in ch2 space, sc in tc, 2sc in ch2 space, sc in next 9st* repeat ** to end of row, sc in last 7 st. ch1, turn.

Repeat Rows 1-8 twice, then do Rows 1-4 again, finishing off after Row 4. Weave in ends and block with many pins to make the butterflies show off their sparkles!

I love this pattern and have started making it. I've got the hang of the fsc's, but when I do the ssdc it doesn't come out as high as a normal dc, so I'm not sure I'm doing it right and can't find it on youtube (let alone a lefties version!). Can you please clarify this stitch for me? Thanks

Hi Sylvia! The key is to make your single crochets nice and loose - Mrs Micawber has a more detailed photo tutorial: http://mrsmicawber.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/crochet-turning-chain-alternatives.html :)

Thanks for your response, I'll be trying that next. In the meantime I've been using a standing double crochet instead. Although there seems to be a couple of variants of that on YouTube, so maybe I'm doing something else entirely!Compliments again on the pattern, it's so easy!

I am a fairly novice... I do not really know how to read charts, so I have been going off the row instructions. I am currently undoing row 2. I might be wrong, but if I "repeat row 1" my spaces are opposite of my dc's. Should I add 7 stitches to the foundation so that no matter which end I start my row from they match or is this only an error in the Row 2 instructions?

I am super excited to make this, I am absolutely not criticising, I really am unsure and want to succeed! THANK YOU!!!!

Blog people

Hi there! We are Michelle and Anne and we share this blog! We have been friends for ages even though we live in different sides of the world (Australia and Germany). We share a common passion which is crochet (hence the blog name) but we blog about Australia, Germany, food and other stuff we like too.